CONTRACTIONS. The wish or necessity of economizing labor and parchment, led the scribes of the middle ages to use a great many abbreviations or C. in their many.
Contravention. 28G Convalescent.
scripts. These C. were transplanted into the first printed books; and more recently they have been reproduced in many works, as well in this country as on the continent., where it was thought desirable that the modern print should represent as nearly as pos sible all the peculiarities of the ancient manuscript. A knowledge of C., therefore, is indispensable, not only to readers of old writings, but to readers of theprinted books of the 15th, the 16th, and the earlier part of the 17th centuries, and to all who desire to avail themselves of the vast stores of historical and arclueological materials accumulated in the rolls and records published by the governments of Great Britain, France, and other countries.
C. may be divided into six classes: 1. C., properly so called; 2. C. by elision or sus pension; 3. C. by writing a smaller letter above the word contracted; 4. 0. by running two or more letters into one character; 5. C. by symbols representing syllables or words; 6. C. by initial letters.
1. Of C., properly so called, there are three great kinds: (1.) A straight line over a letter denotes the omission of an m or an n after it.
(it.) A crooked or circumflex line over or through a letter signifies that one or more letters are omitted after itoccasionally both before and after it.
(itt.) The sign over a letter shows that er—or occasionally re—is omitted after it.
2. In C. by elision or suspension, the word is not fully written, the want of the termi nating letters being denoted by the marks or ', or .; thus: ass assisa; test', teste; dat., datum; temp., tempore.
3. C. by writing a smaller letter above the word the letter so written be a vowel, it denotes the omission of a consonant; if a consonant, the omission of a vowel. Occasionally the omission extends to two or more letters, whether vowels or consonants.
4. Of C, by running two or more letters into one character, the diphthongs to and ire, and the sign & for et. are familiar examples.
5. C. by symbols representing syllables or words.
6. Of the more common C. by initials, a list has already been given in this work, under Abbreviations (q.v.). In this way of writing, a whole sentence may be expressed without so much as one word being written at length, as in the well-known epistolary form S.V.B.E.E.Q.V.; that is, Si rates, bene est, ego quidcm valeo. Among the initials used in old writings and books, it will suffice here to mention the following: A. Alexander, Alanus, Arthurus.
B. Benedictus, Bernard us, Boni facius.
B.M.V. Beata Maria Virgo.
B.P. Beatus Paulus, or Petrus.
B. V. Bene vale.
C.TT. Cardinalis Tituli.
D. David, Durandus, Duncanus.